Plow

all milledge does is impress me. every single day. both his homeruns were huge, he has two amazing outfield assists, and he seems to genuinly enjoy playing the game.

 

don't get me wrong, melky's been better than expected, but he's just another overrated young player in new york. new yorkers tend to overrate all the young players since we're all used to trades and free agent signings. shane spencer, kevin maas(good one, whoever mentioned that), chen ming wang (will never be more than a #2), channing frye, nate robinson, john wallace, trevor ariza, michael sweetney, frank williams (say what you want now, but all these knick players were overhyped whenever they had a good week), alex escobar, dioner navarro, the list goes on and on and on. even robinson cano, while i'll conceed will be a good player, is treated like the 2nd coming of roberto alomar--dream on yankee fans. even today im listening to mike and the maddog and they're talking about how no one mentions the yankees in the willis rumors and mike goes "well they won't trade him to the yanks unless cano or wang are in the deal, and obviously the yanks wont do that" WHY? why the hell wouldn't you trade chin ming wang for dontrelle willis? this isn't a 35 year old overpaid has been, this is a young pitcher who's still like 2 years away from free agency. he's two years younger than wang!!! i've never ever seen so many people excited about a guy who's working on his 2nd straight season with an era over 4.00--there's no reason why wang should be untouchable unless the player is very old

andy phillips is the shane spencer.

What about our posada's, jeter's and rivera's?

channing frye was well worth the pick, some argue he is better than bogut. I remember reading somewhere that some scouts thought if the draft was oever again, he woulda been picked over bogut, and woulda gone more like top 3.

idk what the big deal is about wang, however i know this, he can handle new york, and instead of paying a guy big bucks to be here and get pressure on him, i'd rather have the kid who has no pressure and does a decent job. Dont get me wrong, willis for wang is better in talent, but we know what we're gunna get from wang. As opposed to some NL pitchers who come over and cant handle it... beckett, pavano, wright, clement....

I don't get it...I know HGH is against the rules of MLB, but why are Feds involved in things like this? Is HGH illegal to possess or something?

yes it is, and it costs a lot of money too. It's like a thousand for a cycle or something if I remember from Game of Shawdows correctly.

i loved Damon's reaction, and the catch....I'm spechless

the melky way

this guy is the fucking man

has already proven himself in like 100 more at bats

 

That is an oxymoron.

 

Ever hear of kevn Maas?

 

Comparing a guy with 100 at bats and declaring him a more proven player compared to a guy with 19 at bats is as assinine as I have read on this board.

 

Neither are proven and 100 at bats is hardly a measure of anything. How about those great power numbers in 100 at bats? My god its sickening how Yankee fans place these blinders on and come up with this shit.

the power will come. and wait since when did milledge have more power now. he hit 1 home run.

Milledge in the international league hit .291 with 4 homers and 19 rbi's in 182 at bats

Cabrera in the international league hit .385 with 4 homers and 24 rbi's in 122 at bats

in the majors

Cabrera is hitting .295 with 12 rbi's in 88 at bats with 2 sb's, yes melky can run too

Milledge is hitting .316 with a homer and 4 rbi's in 19 at bats

all i am saying is as of right now, they're closer then you guys are making it out to be.

cabrera has a pretty strong arm, led the international league in hitting before being called up at .385, has already proven himself in like 100 more at bats. Milledge may have a higher ceiling but as of right now, cabrera is more proven. You can talk ceiling all you want, but thats like guessing. Until he gets there you cant say he's a better player. a Better prospect? yes, milledge is a better prospect. But as of right now, cabrera is a more proven player.

LETS GO MAVS!!!

Dirk has turned into a dominating force out there. You cant guard him, too quick for big men, and he's too tall for quick guys. Yet they have to have small guys guarding him, which he can shoot over at will or pass to anybody he wants at will.

THE NEW GREAT WHITE HOPE!

June 4, 2006 -- IT WAS less than a month ago, at Cooper Stadium in Columbus, that Lastings Milledge and Melky Cabrera faced one another. They seemed, even then, far away from the majors, further from being important figures in a pennant race.

Yet here they are, just 21, with Norfolk, Columbus and Triple-A in the rearview mirror. Both are starting for New York teams and maybe starting something else: A long-running debate. Lastings vs. Melky, Melky vs. Lastings.

"It's hard to say who is better," said Mets hitting coach Rick Down. "They are both tremendous. Melky has the better arm, Lastings runs faster. But you start adding it up and what you have are two good players who can be mainstays in this city for years and New York fans can argue about who is better forever."

Down is in a unique position to make the assessment. He is Milledge's hitting coach now, and was the Yankees' coordinator of instruction in 2004 and watched Cabrera regularly play in the Florida State League for Tampa. He knows Milledge has been near the top of every prospect list for a few years now and Cabrera hasn't. Cabrera was not even in Baseball America's preseason Top 10 of the Yankees' diminished farm system. But, Down says, that is why such lists should not be treated as bibles.

"I love Melky," Down said. "I'd take Melky in a heartbeat. Melky can play."

It is an instinct he had about Cabrera from 2004. That is why, he says, he is not surprised Cabrera is seizing opportunity. Down ticks off attributes. Switch-hitter. Good from both sides. Superb hitting eye. Excellent arm. Good speed. Good kid.

In less than a month, Cabrera has gone from the 20-year-old who with an embarrassing major league cameo last year to an integral part of the Yanks' M*A*S*H unit. He still has fewer than 100 plate appearances, so slumps, adjustments and the need to prove this is all for real lurk.

Nevertheless, the Yanks are no longer talking about sending him down when Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield heal. They love his precocious discipline and his accurate throws. The Yanks are thrilled that at their moment of desperation, Cabrera has, at the very least, shown he should have gained more respect on those prospect lists.

The Mets were not desperate when summoning Milledge. They were a first-place team playing well. Still, they saw opportunity. Xavier Nady had his appendix removed and there was a low-pressure month available to gauge Milledge. The Mets maintain that when Nady returns, he will be the starter again.

But that is just something said to keep stress off of Milledge. Why fill his head with possibilities and risk that he will press in trying to impress? As Down said, "I'm sure he could (play his way into a full-time job). You like to think someone is not going to lose their job because of injury, but if (Milledge) hits .400, he is going to put pressure on people to keep him here.

So far that has not happened. In yesterday's doubleheader opener, a 5-3 loss to the Giants, Milledge was hitless in three at-bats with two strikeouts and also had a hideous overthrow in the field. He has one hit in 11 major league at-bats. He did show his speed in the Mets' 3-2 nightcap victory, tagging and scoring the winning run on an 11th-inning shallow fly to right.

Overall, Down remains encouraged, emphasizing Milledge's ability to rise "to big occasions." When the pitching was best in the minors or in spring training, Down says, so was Milledge.

Therefore, Down does not expect Milledge to be overwhelmed by this challenge. He has fast legs, a fast bat and now may be on the fast track.

"If you get here and play well, you put pressure on people," Milledge said.

Milledge also said he is not surprised at all about Cabrera, against whom he has played at Double-A and Triple-A. Cabrera homered twice in that series at Cooper Stadium less than a month ago, "tore the cover off the ball" as Milledge remembers. That was in the International League. In less than a month, the Mets and Yanks will play Interleague and perhaps for the first time in New York we will see Lastings vs. Melky, Melky vs. Lastings.

joel.sherman@nypost.com

mets fans dont know much about cabrera. There has been buzz about him for awhile in the yanks farm system. He also hit .385 in AAA in 122 at bats with 4 homers and 24 rbis.

You cant ignore what Melky has done, he's more proven at this point. However I dont like this question and would like it if we waited a year or 2.

melky cabrera and kevin thompson are all we need. Bernie is fine too. Giambi can DH and give Phillips more oppurtunities. He's hitting well, which we all thought he would. Dont forget about Bubba Crosby.

Time to start letting the kids play.

And A-rod has a 1/4 night and grounds out to the catcher, tie ballgame top of the ninth.

hey mets/red sox fan, if ur not gunna say anything of importance that none of us dont already know, then GET OUTTA HEA!

IF U WATCHED THE GAME U WOULD HAVE SAW HE ALMOST HIT A HOME RUN OFF THE GUY THROWING 100 MPH THAT NO ONE ELSE COULD HIT. HE SMOKED IT AND IT WOULDA BEEN OUT AT ANY OTHER STADIUM.

He's also 2/5

SO SHUT UP

I'M SICK OF IT!

He looks like the type of guy that would have one. Gary Cohen brought up actually that the Mets want him to keep that feature. He looks like a nice guy and all, but I don't think the streets of NY and Lastings go together that easily. Tough to state that. So don't jump on me if you misunderstand me.

 

He has a Santonio Holmes/Plax look to him. Hopefully, Wright and Reyes and others straighten him out if necessary.

the one thing i like about the braids is it makes him easier to spot

Most of the good ones are like that at a young immature age. Jeter and Wright are the exceptions to that rule.

yeah

hansen was really nice for the red sox when i went. He's real close to coming up too. I was tlaking to him about Glen cove, and he'll sign anything.

he's got an ego, i remember when he came into the pawtucket game and was acting like he was better than every1, wouldn't even sign an autograph

thats great, i love it, thats great.

Thats what i do with one of my friends. Everytime A-rod does something, we'll change it around to something negative.

It's the why didn't u hit a 5 run homer mentality that we make fun of

Tell me that's not sarcasm :brooding:

i am serious, i have a milledge card and I was going to go to the Pawtucket Red Sox game to get it signed. It's like 5 minutes from my house. Norfolk is there today.

damnit, i was gunna go get his autograph today

9-12 year-olds. It's the "Little League" level (as opposed to "Minors" (younger) or "Junior League" (older)). I totally didn't want to do this, but now I'm into it. Nice feeling when you see your team execute the things you work on in practice. Some of the other coaches are toolboxes, too, so it's kinda fun to ruin their day.

whats ridiculous was when i was a junior in high school, i asked a guy to ask some of the coaches in the little league i used to play in if they would allow me to just help out their teams. And every single coach said that they were all set. I could tell it was kinda hard for the guy I asked to tell me that basically I cant help out, and to boot I was a success story of that little league. i played varsity baseball, not many kids from there continued on to do that.

I HATE JERK LITTLE LEAGUE COACHES.

just teach ur kids fundamentals and respect for the game.

if we got bonds, then either he or giambi will have to play the field.

NO THANKS

i'll take melky in '07

take a look at him and jeter's stats in "clutch situations"

jeter's stats are worse last year

a-rod led the league last year in game tying or going ahead rbi's past the 7th inning.

The last thing the yanks should do right now is trade him.

Hopefully he asks for too much and the Rays cut ties with him, then we get him. It's the only way.

yeah in like 5-6 years from now.